5 Strategies — Link Building for Small Business Websites
LEARN Proper Link Building for Small Business Websites
Why Invest in Backlinks?
Search engines, particularly Google, consider backlinks a crucial factor when ranking websites. In fact, backlinks are one of two main factors search engines consider when ranking websites.
This means simply optimizing your website with relevant keywords (on-page SEO) won’t be enough to outrank competitors. Building backlinks, a form of off-site SEO, is just as important (if not more).
Studies by Ahrefs even show a direct correlation between the number of backlinks a webpage has and the amount of organic traffic it receives!
That said, earning backlinks for free is a difficult task. So we suggest these 5 Tactics for link building for small business websites.
5 Backlink Strategies for Small Businesses
Partner with Industry Influencers
Influencers have already established credibility within your niche, so why not tap into that potential?
They have their own audiences and their own channels to connect with them. That’s good because you can connect with their audience and gain valuable backlinks through:
- Co-creating content
- Sponsored content
- Conducting interviews
Ideally, people are going to be directed to your online content (website, social profile, etc.) through theirs. So try to include smart call-to-actions in your campaigns.
Use Data-Driven Insights
When there’s data and research, there’s sharing and linking back to your content.
Using data in your content is a safe way of scaling your website’s rankings. Plus, people eat up data-driven insights. This could be anything from publishing your own findings in a survey or creating a blog post dedicated to what the stats say about the future of your industry.
Bonus tip: turn data into aesthetically pleasing infographics and share them on your social channels! That way, your audience will also be more inclined to share them.
Be Active in Niche Communities
Mainstream forums and social media can be unfriendly toward small businesses that wish to stand out. Instead, we recommend exploring niche online communities like industry forums, Q&A sites, or social networks relevant to your target audience. At least in the beginning.
Read these communities’ guidelines and promote your expertise in a way that adheres to them. For example, look for sub-channels and queries that are relevant to what you do and promote yourself.
The best way of doing this is by naturally taking part in discussions, sharing valuable insights, and building relationships that can lead to links.
Guest Blogging
Reach out to industry-related blogs and offer to write guest posts. This is a win-win situation since you’ll be exposing yourself to a new audience while earning a backlink to your website.
But in your search for credible niche websites, keep the quality of the earned backlink in mind and look for websites with:
- High domain authorities
- Low spam scores
- Relevant topics
Magazines and news websites are two good examples of (free and paid) guest blogging opportunities.
Local Link Building
For small businesses with a local focus, building links within your community is both easier and more important than other methods. Here are a few ways you can earn local backlinks through.
Local SEO: Submit your small business website on local business directories, community portals, and news websites in the area. This will give you that “newcomer glow” in Google’s eyes.
Content collaboration with local businesses: Co-create content with other local businesses to boost your visibility, get backlinks, and hopefully trend in the community.
Attend local events: Being an active member of local events, charities, or groups can earn you some free mentions and backlinks from local websites. This will improve both your local SEO and brand awareness.
Best B2B Sites for Backlinking
According to SEOptimer, you can also consider community sites where you can find, trade, or earn backlinks or press. Some of these sites allow for posting, promoting, sharing, buying, trading or earning links.
https://www.seoptimer.com/blog/best-sites-for-backlinks/
Top 6 Backlink Sites I recommend:
1. HARO
Site URL: https://www.helpareporter.com
Backlink Type: Followed/nofollow
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is one of the most popular and highly-trafficked journalistic platforms, and it’s easy to find opportunities for followed backlinks here.
Cision HARO for Backlinking
2. SourceBottle
Site URL: https://www.sourcebottle.com
Backlink Type: Followed
This is a journalistic service like HARO: You get free publicity by responding to media queries from bloggers, journalists and writers.
3. Business 2 Community (B2C)
Site URL: https://www.business2community.com
Backlink Type: Followed
4. BizSugar
Site URL: https://share.bizsugar.com
Backlink Type: Followed
5. GrowthHackers
Site URL: https://growthhackers.com
Backlink Type: Followed
6. Pen.io
Site URL: https://pen.io
Backlink Type: Followed
What Does Link Building for Small Business Websites Matter?
IT’S SIMPLE
By getting more and higher-quality backlinks, you will increase the domain authority of your website.
Domain Authority (DA) is basically a ranking metric from 1-100. The closer/higher your is DA to 100 means the more credibility and trust your website is recognized by search engines.
For example, these websites all have over a 95/100. So anything they post online with a specific URL or Keyword they are more likely to rank at the top of search engines like Google.
- Google.com
- Twitter.com
- Facebook.com
- Yelp.com
- Pinterest.com
- Yahoo.com
The list goes on and on. Now posting to some of these social media sites WONT count as a backlink. However, some news and media sites WILL count as a backlink if you get an article, such as.
- Forbes.com
- Entrepreneur.com
- WallStreetJournal.com
- BusinessInsider.com
- NewYorkTimes.com
If you can get press, news, media, or premium blogs, then you can usually get a premium high DA Backlink. Getting this backlink will BOOST the authority (DA) of your website.
Then by increasing your DA over time that means you will rank higher in search results for any quality page you post. From there make sure all your pages are optimized for focus keywords, so you’ll rank for those terms in search results.
Momentum DA = 57/100
Ranking Keywords = 10,500
We live and breathe this. We practice what we preach when it comes to link building for small business websites. This is why our Website SEO is great and provides us so many clients from search engines.
Call, comment, email or text us with any questions.
hi@needmomentum.com
(215) 876-2954
Great post! Link building is essential for small businesses looking to boost their online presence. Focusing on local directories, industry partnerships, and guest blogging can really make a difference. Thanks for sharing these actionable tips!